Chapter four in TPACK had a similar theme to many of the other chapters. It talked about a need for “apprenticeship of observation” or in other words, training pre-service teachers to integrate technology into content areas early on in order to truly have an effect. In this chapter the discussion was on integrating English and technology.
English teachers, as well as others, must be taught to use technology in their content area rather than as a stand alone course. The Ed-U-Tech program out of Minnesota does just that! This program sounds very valuable and successful in teaching English through technology. I like how the program mandates an English methods course and a companion technology course at the same time. This provides the best opportunity for the learning to be meaningful for new teachers. This was lacking in my college experience. For me, technology was taught as a stand alone course, and there was no focus on content areas or integration. No one helped me to see the value and possibilities that technology could bring to a field such as English. I feel like I am trying to play ‘catch up’ as I learn about integration. This is only my eighth year of teaching! I cannot imagine what it must feel like for a veteran teacher who has even less experience with technology.
The chapter also discussed the necessity of immersing veteran teachers into new learning that would cause them to question their beliefs in their content area knowledge as well as their technology knowledge causing growth in both areas. In English, this can be done by presenting the new and evolving types of literacy. While I agree with the notion of promoting new learning, I feel that teachers need to be provided with support in order for it to be successful. Many school districts in Maine are not in a position to support teachers’ new learning. There is little professional development and knowledgeable personnel and up to date equipment are not available. These areas need to be addressed in order for technology integration to increase and be an effective tool for student learning.
This lack of preparedness has greatly effected the possibilities in the classroom for many students, mine included. Technology, if used effectively, can be a very valuable tool in learning all components of literacy. I know in my classroom I have not used technology to its full potential as a way for students to learn English skills. In the past, I had the project approach, but I am now working to overcome this ‘disorder”! Support for new learning, access to trained and knowledgeable staff and working, up-to-date equipment are all essential in order for successful integration to occur.
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There was a great connection between this one and the K-6 literacy chapter. Both chapters discussed ways to get pre-service teachers more immersed in technology. That seems to be a real key to promoting effective technology use.
ReplyDeleteBoth Maggie and Meg presented some useful language arts sites.
The Cyber Guides site that was presented by Meg seems pretty usable. I like how it can be searched by grade span. There appears to be a wealth of resources connected to different books. I also found some of Meg's comments about blogging to be interesting. I wonder just how effective blogging would be at the K-1 level?
I am so glad that Maggie introduced me to Teachertube. I had never seen or used it before. There are thousands of educational videos that could be used with students. I need to spend some time surfing the site. The explanation of a wiki was very straight forward. Maybe I can use it w/ my third graders next year when I introduce our class Wiki.
I also felt that there was a great connection between the K-6 literacy chapter and the English chapter. I'm glad that the CyberGuides site was useful to you. I too am interested in the ability of younger children to blog...and I liked Maggie's idea of linking up with an older class who could help the younger students. Good luck! I want to try having classroom blogs or wikis next year as a way of increasing parental involvement.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree that the two chapters went nicely together. I think I learned more about actual strategies and programs in chapter 3, but I enjoyed the discussion of the real world issues in chapter 4.
ReplyDeleteAs for teachertube, I think it is fantastic. I find very specific lessons and videos for what I am doing. Youtube was not as specific and sometimes was just WAY TOO inappropriate for middle school kids. Please let me know if you find anything else for introducing wikis. I really want to be able to do that next year.
Also, thank you for the great digital storytelling website. I am certainly going to be spending some time there!